New Indiana state senator brings boyish enthusiasm
Michael Griffin felt like a teenager in an Apple store when he walked into the Indiana Statehouse as its new state senator.
“I can’t believe I’m here!” he told his wife after his first day on the job. “They call me senator everywhere I go. Plus I have a parking spot, and a pass to get inside. I actually have a seat in the chamber of the Senate.”
Last month, the former Highland Clerk-Treasurer was selected in a caucus by Democratic precinct committmen to replace former state Sen. Frank Mrvan, D-Hammond, who retired in January after nearly four decades in office. When the General Assembly’s short session ended this month, Griffin continued to gush about his dream job.
“I love it so much. Even more than I thought I would,” he told me, his voice rising. “And I love the way my myriad nerdiness has been welcomed on both sides of the political aisle. But I worry about feeling this way. I still have a couple more tests to see if I’m allowed to continue serving people through this public servant position.”
Griffin is referring to the May 3 primary election and his race for the Senate seat against Democratic challenger Martin Del Rio, of Highland. The winner will face Lake County Councilman Dan Dernulc, R-Highland, in the general election in November.
“This opportunity has taken me 30 years to prepare for as a clerk-treasurer,” said Griffin, D-Highland, who served eight terms at that position.
Griffin, 62, talks lightning fast, somehow squeezing in two hours’ worth of conversation into 45 minutes, blaming it partly on his asthma medication. He balances personable and professional like a high-wire act, and comes across as anything but a “politician.”
Griffin speaks in humorous
anecdotes and public servant verbiage, dotting a conversation with phrases such as statistical outliers, convivial colleagues, the equality of human dignity, parliamentarian practices and servant-hearted leadership. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of public service and constitutional law, cheerfully explaining the differences between financial reserves versus surplus.
“We are the greatest nation on earth, but we can’t sit on our laurels to become a more perfect union,” he said without a hint of star-spangled patriotism.
In college, Griffin studied Greek, Latin and religion, which he insists made him a better public servant, but he can’t tell you how. If you ordered a town clerk-treasurer from a public service catalog, it would look like Michael Griffin. He takes pride in this image.
He also takes pride in all matters related to ice cream. With the same level of childlike enthusiasm and succinct enunciation, Griffin can tell you why his favorite Dairy Queen is located in St. John: “Because they get the curl right.”
On Feb. 7 Griffin got the curl right atop his career when he was formally sworn in to office by none other than Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush. Griffin felt he was staring face to face with a Hollywood celebrity.
“You’re Chief Justice Rush,” Griffin gushed before his oath.
“Yes, I am,” she replied. “Thank you for noticing.”
On his first day, he knew where the bathroom was, but not his office. In the Senate chamber, he had to pinch himself. A fellow lawmaker had to remind him to push a button that he was in attendance that day. Griffin was still in awe.
“I can’t tell you the countless number of roll calls I’ve conducted in my career,” he told me. “It was fun to actually answer one.”
If Griffin brought anything to the statehouse during his shortened inaugural stint, it was a genuine renewal of enthusiasm to work in such a hallowed workplace. “I can’t help it,” he said. “I have boy-like joy about the institution of government, which reminds us of our values. I wouldn’t have done this if I thought it was a fool’s errand.”
He’s proud to represent “1⁄50th of 6.7 million Indiana citizens,” as he put it, while also representing all 6.7 million Hoosiers as a constitutional officer of the state. He credits this one-for-all philosophy to the late Indiana Rep. Adam Benjamin Jr., D-1st, who he interned for at 19. At that idealistic age, Griffin quietly believed that being a congressman would someday be his political path.
“And then my life happened to me,” he joked.
Griffin met his wife, Christina, when she audited his clerk-treasurer’s office through her job at the state board of accounts. His pitch for their first date was prescient: “You know more about me than anyone else. Just imagine if we get married. What a story!”
They’ll be married 15 years in June and have a 12-year-old daughter who helped sway her father’s decision to run for state office.
“She wasn’t the sole determinant, but she was awfully helpful,” Griffin said. “My most important task in life is raising my daughter and being a good husband. All the rest are just things I enjoy doing, including public service.”
He made a point to thank his elementary, middle and high school teachers, each who saw something special in him before he did. The last day of the General Assembly’s short session felt like another graduation day, he said.
“Or the last day of summer camp,” he noted with a laugh. “A lot of kind things were said to me and much of it from people on the other side of the political aisle. I felt going in like I had a good handle on how things worked there, but nothing prepares you for this experience like living it.”
After his first day on the job, one of his new constituents contacted him about too many potholes in the Robertsdale section of Hammond. Griffin immediately knew which INDOT official to contact to address the problem. The next morning, “Senator Griffin” got a return phone call and those potholes got filled.
“I got lucky,” he said. “There was already a work crew out there.”